Article: PRONTO PASTA SALAD BY JANE SNOW KNIGHT RIDDER.(FOOD)(Recipe)

A box of horror is lurking in the cupboard of a relative or friend. It could attack your taste buds at any moment.

Be afraid. Be very afraid of ``instant'' pasta salads that come in a box. They are no quicker to make than homemade pasta salad, and they taste like a chemistry experiment.

Want proof? Here's a partial ingredients list of one product we tested last week: modified corn starch, sugar, maltodextrin, corn syrup, whey, artificial flavor, monosodium glutamate, hydrolyzed corn protein, disodium guanylate, disodium inosinate and soy flour. The second-most plentiful ingredient, after macaroni, is salt.

Yum.

Despite the salty, ...

Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles:

 
 
Newsweek Harper's Magazine The Washington Post Chicago Tribune Crain's Chicago Business PRNewswire Pediatric News The Nation Advertising Age The Economist (US) A FREE trial gives you access to over 80 million articles! Access over 6,500 publications with a FREE trial!